Hidden: In the Dark

Hotel

It's been around a month since they last saw the cousins, turns out they're in San Francisco. During that time, Vera has gotten lip surgery so she can not only talk better but also look the part. The gang decided to follow them and fly out, all except Rover, when Zip texted him, his response was "Man, I got a job. If I was gonna be takin' a vacation, you should've told me like a month ago! Not to mention what's gonna happen to Bruce."

They rented out three hotel rooms, all near each other and all practically identical. Each room has two beds so Vera and Emmy are sharing a room, Zip and Maze are sharing another, and Steve has the last one. They decided to meet in Maze's room, with its warm comfy feeling, bathroom as soon as you walk in on the left. Just a little further are the beds on the right with a tv on the opposite side. On the end of the room is a small balcony with a sliding glass door, they have to leave the curtains closed to keep massive amounts of heat from coming in.

"Man, it is HOT here!" Zip exclaims, putting on a sleeveless grey t-shirt. He's decided to let his facial hair grow out in the past month; it makes him look more serious. The team isn't used to the heat, Penbrooke has moderate weather at best, it's always going from sunny to rainy to snowing.

"So, where are the cousins at, Zip?" Steve asks. "Holiday Inn towards the Painted Ladies, I made us close enough if we need to find them, far enough to keep them from finding us."

"I reckon we wait until tomorrow to search around, the flight here was early and exhausting enough to make me tired, not sure about you." He yawns. "Might just take a nap." He lays down with his arms crossed behind his head.

"Hey, there's a glowing roller rink around here." Vera looks up from her phone. Zip sits up. "Roller rink?"

"You sprung up for that, didn't you?" Maze says.

"Well I mean-"

"Thought you were beat?" Emmy adds.

"Hot summer day, cool, insulated and dark roller rink? Curiouser and curiouser..."

"I request that we stop by Ghirardelli Square on the way back." Maze asks, graciously. Steve smiles because of how similar it sounds like his mom.

~

The gang walks into the church, people riding around with glow-skates making it look like they have glowing light ribbons attached to their feet. Steve has only ever roller-skated once in his life, at a kid's birthday party when he was in the 3rd grade so he's not sure what to expect. The place is just how it's described, a church. Formerly known as Sacred Heart, it even has the stained-glass windows, which go nicely with the flashing lights, above those are paintings of various biblical figures, next to them are crosses and outside is a bell tower. Above the inside of the entrance is a balcony used for the lights but also holds a variety of golden balloons, reflecting the lights that put together read "Church of 8 Wheels."

You can pick what color shoes you wear so Steve picks orange, Emmy gets yellow ones, Maze gets teal, Zip gets a lime green, and Vera couldn't decide on whether to pick pink or red so she got one of each. A song starts playing, it's familiar to them all but none of them can quite remember why, all except Maze. She smiles and is the first to go out onto the floor, rolling backwards, looking at the others as if to say 'the water's fine'.

That's when Steve remembers what the song is called. It's 'All Over the World' by ELO, of course she'd know it. Zip joins her and the two stroll together, hand in hand.

Emmy takes off like a rocket, speeding around the place like it's a racetrack. Vera can't stay shy for long either, before you know it, she's conversing with other people, hands behind her back and carrying a conversation with people she never even knew. Perhaps the idea of being in a new place where nobody knows you is helping her become more confident.